Hello all! Today's focus is on Krabby, who I've attempted to draw out in a realistic rendition. I looked back at a few of the other similar styles, which varied between a textured chalky Pidgey down to channeling RJ Palmer for Slowpoke. As this project is to present artwork in new visual styles for each creature, I had to come up with a way to make this approach unique from the others.

This was done by using outlines, and what a difference it makes adding such markings...The work all of a sudden is pushed into a cartoony territory, despite having the makings of something that could be seen in a photograph. It started with finding a reference of a crab I could use to fuse in elements of Krabby. Krabby itself is very simple - it's the Pokemon world's version of a crab so it doesn't need to be the most exciting design ever. I carried over the two spikes on its head, the protruding "teeth", and the style of claw for the illustration.

I did the usual song and dance of feeling things out, and coloring to place down the right planes...and then only near the end did I do a final outline to seal the deal. Once the guidelines were set, I painted a new layer over the old for the final details, and make everything appear very crisp. Like how I handled Slowpoke, I used a form of speckling to get down darks and lights, and moreso the light. This allowed me to handle the texture of the crab hide and obviously display light to give the piece some life.

Overall, I'm really happy with the work - I tried to model a Krabby out of the reference shot and it might not be readily apparent unless you knew Pokemon was involved with this illustration, but that's fine my be - it might even make me look better if people couldn't distinguish this design from a real crab's...But then again, who's the crab expert out there that would immediately recognize this to be fake? :P

So there you have it! One Krabby at the ready! Thanks for reading and viewing today's artwork, and see you tomorrow for crab royalty!

Yours,

Bonny

P.S. Yes, one claw is bigger than the other, and only so slightly! Krabby have the same sized pincers so I made this subtle change as a nod to his future evolution.

+ Pokemon One a Day is a series illustrated and curated by Bonny John in an effort to represent the the first generation of characters from the world wide phenomenon that is known as Pokemon. The idea is simple - to draw and share one new Pokemon a day (weekends off!) until every Pokemon from the set is completed. This project is an exploration of fine art styles for learning and leisurely purposes.